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Get a canister. That's what I did. I was happy with the 400, but wanted a little more options. After having a buddy get water damage to his floor from a HOB filter I put an XP2 in and when I'm not around the house much I just turn off the 400.

Adding filter floss or pillow stuffing to your gray media container will help polish your water. Its cheap and works well. I change it about once a month. But depending on the size of your tank, a canister filter really adds great mechanical filtration.

This Aquarium and Pond Information resource is a must read for any aquarist ...
(as well as one Emperor Filter) with Bio Wheels against Sponge Filters, ... I do
STRONLY recommend the purchase of a filter such a Hydro Sponge Filter or ... Not
just a filter, but a monthly maintenance miracle or better â€œA useful too ...

A canister filter... ANY canister filter, has about a 100% better chance of leaking and causing water damage than an Emperor 400. There is virtually NO way for it to leak. I have experiences one minor issue in years of using them, and that was a spray bar issue (and was my fault after not installing it correctly after taking it out to clean it).

I use both of them, so this is unbiased. Both have their advantages and there is certainly a much wider array of options for canisters (and they are better for mechanical filtration) - but if you want to talk "risk of water damage" or failure leave the Emperor 400 out of the discussion, there's pretty much no risk at all with them. Canisters have o-rings, seals, hoses, etc.

Jalo Reefa' wrote:A canister filter... ANY canister filter, has about a 100% better chance of leaking and causing water damage than an Emperor 400. There is virtually NO way for it to leak. I have experiences one minor issue in years of using them, and that was a spray bar issue (and was my fault after not installing it correctly after taking it out to clean it).

I use both of them, so this is unbiased. Both have their advantages and there is certainly a much wider array of options for canisters (and they are better for mechanical filtration) - but if you want to talk "risk of water damage" or failure leave the Emperor 400 out of the discussion, there's pretty much no risk at all with them. Canisters have o-rings, seals, hoses, etc.

I have Emperor 280s running on different tanks, and I'm pretty happy with them. But the one in my 29g South American tank has a nasty habit of splashing the water around as it comes out of the intake into the reservoir. This gentle splashing eventually leads to a steady drip that escapes over the top of the back corner. This drip, drip, drip lead to about 5 litres of water on my office floor one night before I came into work. Not bad, but not fun.
I've cleaned and reassembled the intake shaft and impeller many times. The only thing that works is a little DIY cover in the back corner and weekly filter pad washings/changings. I don't love maintaining my filter on a weekly basis, so this particular Emperor is being swaped out with a canister.

I'm sure my issue is pretty rare, but I think it's safe to say that anything that carries water can leak. After all, it wasn't Intelligent Design that created the Grand Canyon; it was water.

- read and interesting post on another site - on the 400 (I have two) - will credit the author assuming i can find it again...houstonfishbox.com (i think)

The design of the 400 diverts 50% of the water to turn the bio wheels and the other 50% gets filtered - the author removed the spray bar and added two small pieces of pvc with a joint to divert the balance of the water behind the filter pad. they added a small hole in the joint to put one stream of water on to the bio wheel to turn the wheel...effectively the mod filters 95% of the water moving through the intake

pretty ingenous I thought, but haven't tried it...combine that with the diy wet/dry mod on this site, the pad mentioned above and you can create a much more powerful tool